Friday, 12 February 2010

Death tax?

It now appears that Labour is considering introducing a new tax to help to pay for care for the elderly. The new tax will be payable on death and will be set at £20,000 per death. This to me typifies the hypocrisy that is Labour today. Back benchers quite rightly complained about the Tory plan to increase the threshold for capital gains tax to £10000000. Now the health minister is considering this barmy idea. The tri party talks on providing care have broken down with Tory and Labour blaming each other. Even the Tories can’t stomach this proposal. If you think about it it will become the most hated tax of all time. Even Thatcher couldn’t have come up with worse. Can you imagine in Sandwell how many widows or widowers will be able to find 20 grand to pay up on the death of a loved one? How will this work? Another means test? Pay up or else? Time to pay? At a time after loosing a loved one is not the time for big government of any colour to be demanding money from the bereaved. Will they be sent to prison for failing to pay. Apparently we can’t afford to do this through general taxation. Well I think this claim is utter tosh. Brown could not afford to bail out failed pension funds but managed to find the money to bail out three banks. Utter hypocrisy. How much would it cost on income tax perhaps 2p on lower rate and much more on the higher rates.I was please with the way Andy Burnham was dealing with this issue until now. This just shows how the leadership of Labour think and I don’t like it. It is not going to win an election and begs the question do Labour want to win?Shame on you Mr. Burnham. A tax on death is just too horrible to contemplate.

4 comments:

But Bob, this whole thing is predicated on a fiction, which for some reason you have converted in to fact.

The Tories say Labour is introducing a £20,000 'Death Tax'. The government have denied it and said they are consulting in a Green Paper on ways of financing an 'NHS for Social Care' - which we should all welcome.

I quote Andy Burnham: Health Secretary Andy Burnham yesterday said change was needed to care for an ageing population.

But he denied claims Labour would impose a £20,000 levy on every estate. He said: "I do not believe that would be the right way."

He said the current care policy, with those worth more than £23,000 having to pay for their own, is not sustainable and he wanted "a fairer system".

That is certainly my understanding. If you can point me to where Ministers have said there will be a new tax on death, set at £20,000 I will apologise to you. But this was just an attempt by the Tories to divert attention away from Labour's real announcement, which was about increased personal care for those with cancer.

Obviously it worked, otherwise you would have had a piece about Labour's real announcement.

Bob, I'm seeing my MP on Tueday and one of the issues I want to raise is this. I did a piece earlier and quoted Andy Burnham re AA and other allowances. I hope I am wrong on this one. I'll be very happy to print a rebuttal.

About Me

Born in Birmingham and lived in West Bromwich for most of my life. The Black Country Brummie tag came from a local poetry group when I read some of my poetry written in Black Country but of course resited with a brummie accent.